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All I Needed to Know I Learned By Being an Entrepreneur

“The very first company I started failed with a great bang. The second one failed a little bit less, but still failed. The third one, you know, proper failed, but it was kind of okay. I recovered quickly. Number four almost didn’t fail. It still didn’t really feel great, but it did okay. Number five was PayPal.”Max Levchin

Being a business owner can be the best thing and the worst thing all in the same day. One moment I LOVE being a business owner and then a hour later I am contemplating going to work as a greeter at Walmart. Yet at the end of the day there’s nothing I’d rather be or do. I LOVE being an entrepreneur. Being in business for myself has taught me so much.

I have learned…

Failure is a given not an OPTION. Being an entrepreneur taught me how to fail repeatedly while still moving forward. I don’t fear failure today as much as I once did. And when I do feel it I can acknowledge it and move through it.

Rejection will not kill me. I feared rejection in the beginning but the more I pushed through it the more I realized that in order to get to “YES” I had to collect a bunch of “NO’s”.

My good ideas need to be tested. Just because I think others want something doesn’t mean they will. I’ve learned to get feedback from people I trust BEFORE rolling out anything new. I wasted a lot of money rolling out ideas that were doomed to fail from the beginning.

To not take myself so seriously. If I can laugh at myself and the crazy things that happen in business I will have more fun. Business need not be such a serious thing. Being in business has forced me to lighten up.

To color outside the lines. I tried for years to fit within the lines and then I found entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur people told me it was okay and expected that I color outside the lines. Who knew?

It’s all about the little things. Being successful in business doesn’t happen overnight. Success takes time and lots of little things done consistently. Success is about purposeful, consistent action over the long haul. I must focus on the revenue generating activities each day.

That being an entrepreneur is a process. I will never GET there. I will never be done. It’s a journey – one I hope to be on for the rest of my life.

What has being an entrepreneur taught you? What has your line of work taught you?